The CA-Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition program honored Saint Francis HIgh School as a Green Achiever in 2025. This document and nomination submission summarizes the sustainability achievements of the school.

Saint Francis High School (SFHS), a private Catholic institution in Mountain View, California, exemplifies a holistic commitment to sustainability, health, and interdisciplinary learning through its environmental initiatives, wellness programs, and educational practices.

The CA-Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition program honored McNear School in Petaluma as a Green Achiever in 2025. This document and nomination submission summarizes the sustainability achievements of the school.

McNear School integrates environmental stewardship, health and wellness, and ecological literacy into a holistic educational approach rooted in its natural and cultural heritage. Located near the Petaluma River, the school leverages its natural surroundings, including Thompson Creek and diverse habitats, as living classrooms to enhance learning and foster environmental responsibility.

The CA-Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition program honored San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) as a Green Achiever in 2025. This document and nomination submission summarizes the sustainability achievements of the County Office.

SMCOE demonstrates a robust commitment to sustainability, environmental literacy, and student and staff wellness through a range of initiatives.

The CA-Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition program honored Bella Mente Montessori Academy as a Green Achiever in 2025. This document and nomination submission summarizes the sustainability achievements of the school.

Bella Mente Montessori Academy (Bella Mente) has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability through its comprehensive energy conservation, health and wellness, and ecological literacy efforts.

The CA-Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition program honored Laguana Beach Unified School District as a Green Achiever in 2025. This document and nomination submission summarizes the sustainability achievements of the district.

Laguna Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainability, health, and environmental literacy through initiatives that promote conservation, wellness, and education.

This toolkit is intended to provide useful resources for school systems in developing and implementing a written Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) management plan. By guiding users through each component of an Energy Efficient IAQ management plan, this toolkit offers example plan language derived from real school district plans and EPA Tools for Schools resources, while also highlighting energy efficiency implications and case studies from school districts. Furthermore, you can download the plan template, which consolidates all example language into an easily editable document, enabling you to customize a plan tailored to your district's needs.

Explore how Prince George's County Public Schools Indoor Air Quality Professional Learning Community has empowered students and educators to be ambassadors for environmental justice.

Use this template slide deck to educate your school community (teachers, school admin, etc) about the importance of taking proactive measures to reduce the presence of mice and pests in schools. The deck can be edited, but is a starting point to share best practices with good photos illustrating what to do and what not to do.

The Center for Green Schools School Health Research Library research focuses on the impact of the school built environment on student and staff health and performance, including a variety of indoor environmental health topics ranging from indoor air pollutants to lighting and acoustics. This unique database of the latest school-based research allows users to quickly find and access studies most applicable to their needs through filters for measured exposures, student and staff outcomes, free public access, and study location. An accompanying series of research highlights are posted with the library to help translate this research into action in schools and currently feature particulate matter, VOCs, and PFAS. Each research highlight is designed to support school staff and leaders in understanding key findings from research conducted in the U.S and around the world, as well as important background information and actionable mitigation strategies.

This walkthrough checklist can be used by environmental compliance and sustainability teams to document building conditions.

This inspection list is helpful for an environmental compliance and sustainability team assessment of building conditions.

The OCPS IEQ Management Plan is a blueprint for success in dealing with the IEQ issues the district currently faces and those that may occur in the future. The three goals that must be achieved to ensure success are: 1. To promptly and effectively deal with IEQ problems 2. To effectively eliminate or minimize conditions that can cause IEQ problems 3. To prevent problems from occurring in the future.

DMPS has implemented an IAQ Management Plan (since 2012) that will monitor and improve the quality of air in school buildings. The objectives of the IAQ Plan are outlined in the document.

An effective IAQ program can help schools and districts address IAQ issues quickly and efficiently and create a healthier learning environment for staff and students. The program should be tailored to the specific needs of your school.

Subject To Climate's core platform (www.subjecttoclimate.org) is a free, easy-to-use hub that connects educators of all grade levels and subject areas to the resources they need to teach about climate change.

The New York State Electric School Bus (ESB) Guidebook supports the New York State mandate to transition all school buses in the State to zero-emission operation by 2035. It contains information, strategies, and resources to assist school districts, contractors, and other school bus stakeholders with this transition. The Guidebook is made up of content-specific ‘guides’ that cover a variety of school bus electrification topics including environmental benefits of electrification, electric school bus and charger purchasing, available incentives, site planning, workforce training, and operations and maintenance of electric school buses.

Free Learning through Play materials designed to engage children in sustainability and the environment. Designed for use in classrooms, with lesson plans, presentations, and printables.

A toolkit to help families, teachers and school officials get the facts on lead and take action to ensure safe drinking water at school.

If you serve students who are in 6-12th grades, this program is for you!

The Explore.Act.Tell. lessons and project work well in any class/subject area, after school club, homeschool, or community youth group. Lessons will teach young people, through a series of activities, about the issues surrounding hunger and food insecurity and develop skills they will use to create and implement a community service project.

The toolkit supports school board members to understand their role in driving meaningful climate solutions. School board members can collaborate with district, youth, and community leaders to pass resolutions and develop climate action plans for their districts.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers unlimited, non-competitive funding that is available to all schools that move towards adopting clean energy technologies. These improvements can bring long-lasting benefits to your district, including improved student health and safety, fewer learning disruptions, and operational cost savings that can be applied to other district priorities.

The Smithsonian Science Education Center is looking for high school students, ages 14-19, to serve on a global Youth Ambassador Team dedicated to working towards a more sustainable future.

The Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) is working with educators and young people to build knowledge and skills around global and local biodiversity issues. This virtual professional development academy will support educators by offering activities around biodiversity concepts, guidance for student-driven investigations on biodiversity in their community, and opportunities to interact with biodiversity experts, all in relation to how biodiversity can help us achieve the UN SDGs. An interactive Moodle course will also be provided to provide educators extra support, resources, and materials for review.

The Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Project provides youth around the world, ages 8-17, with the knowledge and skills to understand the world’s most pressing issues and to become agents for change in their own communities.  Through a series of freely available community research guides, young people use their communities as their laboratory to investigate the science that underlies the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

In spring 2023, the Smithsonian Science Education Center contracted with Gallup to conduct a study of U.S. K-12 teachers and school administrators, as well as teachers of students in comparable grade levels in four peer countries: Brazil, Canada, France and India. The goal was to gauge attitudes toward, and demand for, education and resources related to sustainable development. In the United States, educational resources exist within school and district curricula, which must adhere to state standards. Internationally, however, different countries and provinces often have a National Curriculum, typically directed by their Ministries of Education. This study was an outgrowth of the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project, which aims to improve STEM Education for Sustainable Development for youth around the world. Download the report to read the findings.

This report, published by the Center for Green Schools in partnership with the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, examines how state legislation, as one piece of a complex puzzle, can help prepare graduates for a future impacted by the climate crisis. The report provides:

• Detailed talking points with citations for making the case
• Essential elements of climate change education legislation
• Model state bill framework
• Profile examples of legislation that supports climate change education in the formal K-12 education system